


Robins and Resentment

by DollyOmega



Series: Reed900 story (title TBD) [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: A lot of driving, Angst, Anxiety Attacks, Case Fic, Connor is bitchy, Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Feral Nines, Gavin Reed is a Mess, Humor, I promise I'll give them joy some day, M/M, Nines is also a mess, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Sarcasm, Slow Burn, Sorry Not Sorry, Trauma, Trying to be friends, angsty ending, but kind of back to enemies, just not today, like very feral nines, not happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:47:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DollyOmega/pseuds/DollyOmega
Summary: Nines and Gavin have been assigned as partners for two weeks, and they still (sort of) hate each other. Gavin has been stuck on desk duty for the past two weeks and trying to come to terms with having an android for a partner, while Nines has just been trying to figure out how to exist. How much worse can things get when they're assigned their first murder case?
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Reed900 story (title TBD) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770442
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s not necessary, but would be helpful for context to read the work before this in the series! It’s pretty bare but is still referenced quite a bit
> 
> Hope you enjoy either way <3

Gavin strolled into the precinct, not exactly smiling, but it was possibly as close as he’d ever gotten within recent days. He’d been having trouble sleeping as of late, and that along with the... _additional stress_ he’d recently faced from work, affixed a nasty scowl to his face for the past few weeks. 

With a cup of overly-priced coffee in his right hand, which he had for once woken up early enough to buy before coming to work, he walked through the bullpen — almost even strolled — and dropped down into the seat at his desk. It was just as messy as he’d left it the day before that. And the day before that...and, yes the day before that too.

The utter disaster that had become of his desk stressed him out, but he’d never get around to cleaning it. Partially because everybody (Connor) kept telling him to clean it, but also because he just...didn’t have the motivation for that right now. In favor of keeping his day good for as long as that was possible, he turned his attention to the light rain pattering outdoors.

It was supposed to rain a bit this morning, Gavin recalled as he looked out the tall windows that were by his desk. He’d always loved the rain, even when he was a kid; loved to stand outside and watch the gray clouds quickly roll by. The feeling of the water on his face when the skies poured down, how it soaked through his clothes and touched his skin. There was more to it now though, something that was comforting in the turbulent sky looming above.

“So, what kinda hookup did you have last night to make your face look like that?”

 _Good ol’ Tina._

“Nahh, nothing like that happened. Just excited to get back in the field today,” he said, looking away from the window to meet her brown eyes, “I’m finally finished with all that ‘disciplinary’ shit Fowler assigned to me.”

“My money’s still on Connor for getting you stuck with that.”

“Of course it was him, he’s like a fuckin lapdog. Uptight bastard would do anything to get me in trouble too. If I find out that plastic prick got me stuck with desk duty, I’m turnin’ him into scraps.”

“Get your wrench ready then, Gav.”

What a way to start a Monday morning: Tina and Gavin gossip time, quiet rain _and_ some killer coffee. Tina Chen was probably Gavin’s only friend in the precinct — scratch that — Tina Chen was probably Gavin’s only friend _in general_.

The two just clicked so easily, and early on since they first met. There was a general contempt for everybody, humans and androids, that they both shared, plus having somebody around the office to gossip with far too often was a nice bonus too. It’s partially what also made her a great drinking buddy for Thursday nights, as was their weekly ritual. The conversations that they’d find themselves in either had them gasping for air between laughs or trying their best to not obviously hold back tears. He sometimes regretted letting her in on the more private parts of his life, and the lack of any romance in it, as he liked, but he trusted her. And that wasn’t something Gavin did often.

“Oh, can I take a sip of your coffee by the way?”

“Uhhh sure, it’s sorta sweet though,” he said, handing it over to her. 

“Really? Not the usual unbearably bitter brew?,” Tina teased with a wink. 

“Yeah, they...they messed it up today. But it’s not too bad, surprisingly.”

“I haven't gotten a chance to make anything for myself. Thanks,” she said, raising the cup to him before taking a big gulp. “Damn, you were right, that is sweet,” she said, with her eyebrows raised high. “Good stuff though!”

After placing the paper cup back onto his desk, she continued, “So, you finally get to get back out there, solving murders and shit, while I’m stuck dealing out tickets and breaking up _more_ anti-android riots,”

“They’re still at it?”

“Yeah. Somehow I’m _always_ the one sent out to tear it up, little ol’ me of _all_ people,” Tina emphasized, leaning back on Gavin’s desk, the back of her hand pressed against her forehead, eyes looking up to the heavens. 

“Drama Queen,” Gavin chuckled.

“Like you’d enjoy it? Or has your little android buddy changed your mind?” she asked, turning her head to Gavin, a devious grin forming on her face.

“Fuck, don’t even remind me,” he snapped, attention turning towards the RK900, whom he had wilfully ignored as best as he could. It was hard to not pay attention to him with how tall he was. Or how blinding that white jacket was in the right lighting. Or even that flat tone that jumped out to Gavin despite all the chatter throughout the building. There was something about him that just stuck out in a way that made him nearly impossible to ignore.

It had only been two weeks since they had first been assigned by Fowler. Gavin had no idea what to expect after the shit show that day one brought, which was admittedly one of his worst days, in retrospect, but the droid stuck around anyway. Nines, as Gavin was never allowed to call him, but would always think of him as, seemed to have given up on trying to befriend him, and Gavin was completely fine with that. They were on equal terms of hatred now, and that was something Gavin could work with. In fact, it was probably the preferred relationship for him.

Tina’s eyes had followed Gavin’s stare and the two silently watched the android for a few moments as he was chatting with Connor across the room.

“He doesn’t seem _that_ bad, at least. Not like Connor levels bad,” Tina said, breaking the silence.

“You’d think, yeah, but with Connor I actually stand a chance of winning a fight. My _‘partner’_ however is a fuckin Terminator, I can’t just punch him to shut him up. Plus he’s got this attitude that only makes me wanna sock him even more.”

“Ouch, resisting the urge to punch somebody the minute they say something you don’t like. Must really be some hard work for you. ”

Gavin turned to Tina sharply, “And what would you do in my situation, Gandhi?”

“I don’t know, honestly. At first I wasn’t sure how to feel about the whole equal rights for androids thing...but after hearing the shit people say at the riots, and also having bitches like Connor around, it’s like…” Tina trailed off, still focused on the RKs, “now I can see that they’re actually alive. Or at least close to it. Y’know?”

Gavin hesitated. The uprising only happened about four months ago and the world hadn’t _completely_ changed over night, but things were changing nonetheless. He still hated them, without a doubt, but…

“Kinda.”

He regretted what he had done, or at least _attempted_ to do, when trying to stop Connor the night that the android revolution reached its peak. It filled him with so much fury at first, to not only be beaten by an android, but to also see the revolution ending, just like _that_. Especially when it was something that he might’ve had a shot at stopping. But now...he was relieved to have been beaten, though there’s no way in hell he’d ever admit to that. He’d still felt some residual anger, though it was directed at himself now for even thinking of stopping a revolution about _equal rights_? It embarrassed him, honestly. But he had a reputation to upkeep nevertheless.

“Well, I gotta head off,” Tina abruptly said, breaking the trance-like state Gavin was in.

“As much as I’d absolutely _adore_ talking about android-rights and morals with you all day, I’ve got some policin’ to do. Gotta make sure it looks like I’m at least _trying_ to do my job!” she said walking away, backwards.

“See ya ‘round, T,” Gavin said, a soft smile replacing the thoughtful look on his face.

“Oh! You have to hook me up with whoever you banged last night by the way, send me her number or somethin!” Tina shouted, halfway across the bullpen now.

Heads throughout the office immediately turned to Tina, and then collectively gawked at Gavin, whose jaw had dropped. His eyes looked ready to jump out of his head in shock, deeply furrowed brows being the only thing to hold them back. Tina playfully held her hands to her mouth, with a grin on her face and mouthed “Sorry” to Gavin, before finally turning away, practically skipping off. 

“Jackass,” was all that Gavin muttered to himself, a deep blush spreading to his ears. He swiveled back to his computer with extreme focus on the blank screen, desperately trying to distract himself from all the critical eyes watching him. Luckily, there weren’t that many people in yet; Monday morning and all. Not that he cared what they thought of him anyway.

But Gavin knew _he_ was looking too. If anything, _he_ was the _only_ person Gavin didn’t want hearing that kinda stuff from Tina, just knowing it’d come back to bite him in the ass.

And hardly to any surprise, less than a minute had passed until he approached Gavin.

“Good morning, Detective.”

Gavin only glanced to the side, barely acknowledging the RK900 android from just the corner of his eye. Reaching for his still-hot cup of coffee, Gavin reminded himself that today was supposed to be a good one, and that wonder bot was not going to ruin it for him. 

_Good vibes today, good vibes_ , he repeated to himself in his head as if they were an incantation. 

For once, he chose to respond, desperately hoping to keep the relative calm going.

“Yeah.”

Nines’ LED flashed yellow for a moment, before he started to speak again, “Captain Fowler informed me this morning of a homicide case that has been assigned to us. Lieutenant Anderson and Connor have been assigned a new case, therefore we will be picking up from where they left off.”

“First day back on and I get the leftovers...great,” Gavin said with a sigh. “Alright, where am I headed?”

“ _We_ will be visiting the primary suspect’s home for questioning.”

“Wait, _we_? Who says you’re coming?” Gavin protested, turning to actually look at the android now.

“ _I_ do, Detective. If _we_ are to solve this case as swiftly, and efficiently as possible, it is vital for us to both go and work together.”

“Yeah fuckin’ right, as if I’d-”

“It is in Captain Fowler’s orders,” Nines cut him off, with a severe expression, “I’m going whether you like it or not, and if you have a problem, feel free to take it up with the Captain yourself.”

Gavin sat back in his chair, slouching, gripping onto the arms of his chair as tight as he could. He hated this feeling. Hated feeling like a little kid that just got scolded by his parents. Feeling ready to physically burst, or even lash out with his fists. Not only did it suck to be talked at by an _android_ like that, but it also reminded him of shit from his childhood and that was _not_ in his plan for a good day. Or any other day, for that matter. _Especially_ not after the nightmares that’d been coming up recently.

But as much as he wanted to explode right there and shut the droid up forever, there was no way in hell that he’d risk getting more administrative work. 

“ _Fuck._ Fine.”

As much as being told he was to work with an android partner was one of the worst things he’d been told to do lately, being told to sit at a boring ass desk with boring ass work was the _absolute_ worst thing he had been told to do lately. Gavin Reed was meant to be in the fray, ensuring justice found its prey and making sure the _real_ baddies in the world got caught, but that wasn’t possible behind stacks of files and papers.

He rose from his desk aggressively, disregarding Nines completely, as difficult as that was with his stature, and walked off, towards the door, blowing off blistering steam with every powerful step.

Until he stopped, halfway to the door and turned around to look at the android.

He hadn’t moved at all. Just watched Gavin walk out, with that default resting-bitch-face. LED stuck on yellow still.

_Freak._

“Are you coming or what?”

And back to blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading chapter 1! 
> 
> (P.S. I love Tina and she will 100% show up more in later works)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for tuning in for chapter two! <3

Nines followed Gavin’s lead all the way through the station, and into the lot where Gavin had parked his car. The two walked in silence the entire time, the quiet rain ending a few minutes ago hadn’t helped the mood at all, and despite Gavin’s loud and aggressive pace, Nines was able to keep up with persistent long strides. There weren’t many cars parked when Nines had first arrived at 6 A.M. sharp, but that was no longer the case, as it was nearing 10 A.M. now and cars had kept pulling in even now as the two made their way to Gavin’s car. Nines took note of their tardiness.

Upon maneuvering through the parking lot, Nines’ face was met with a cooling March breeze that hadn’t quite been there this morning; the colder seasons had begun to give way to warmer days. As much as he had a lot of difficulty feeling most things, he was appreciative of the physical sensations he was programmed with at the very least. He never made the choice to transcend his original programming, never actually developed a sense of emotionality on his own, other than what Connor had introduced him to. It had a way of making him feel...empty, or like he was still a machine.

The RK900 unit was built to be superior to the RK800 android. Or at least, better at completing his mission: _hunting_ deviants. He was never meant to become one of them, was never intended to feel _anything_ at all. Only to annihilate and subjugate. 

So _why_ did that cold air feel so refreshing? 

Why did he miss the tingle of it against his face, its presence only lightly blowing against his artificial skin? Why was he so overwhelmed by it, by emotion? Why had he felt so lost despite possessing complete agency? Why had he ever been awoken? Why was Connor somebody he wanted to protect? Why was Detective Reed so cruel to him? Why did he want to befriend Gavin at all? Especially after the way they’d completely ignored each other since being assigned as partners...

“Nines.”

_Red._

_Yellow._

_Blue._

“You do not have permission to call me that,” the android said instinctively, his words more firm than his tone, almost automatic.

“Did you seriously not fuckin’ hear me call out ‘RK900’ the first 50 times? What am I supposed to call you if you’re not gonna respond to that?”

Processing his surroundings, Nines realized that they had stopped walking a while ago, and were standing right by Gavin’s car. It wasn’t nearly as _repulsive_ as the relic that Hank and Connor drove around with Nines in every morning. In fact, it looked somewhat new; perhaps even _expensive_. It was black, nearly navy, had very few dents or scrapes, and the windshield was... forgivably dirty. Most of all, it seemed exceptionally efficient at going _fast_ , according to Nines’ scans.

“900 will suffice.”

“You’re seriously gonna make me spit that mouthful every time I have to talk to you?”

“It’s only 3 syllables, whereas RK900 is 5 syllables. You do realize that ‘Detective’ also has 3 syllables, right?”

“Alright, smartass, how about this: you call me Gavin, and I call you Nines. Only 1 syllable for both of us. We keep it at just that, okay? Good! Now, get in the car.”

“But Gavin is-”

“Shut-up-and-get-in-the-car,” Gavin barked, as if it were only one word. He opened his door quickly and rushed himself inside, cursing angrily as he slammed his head against the top of the car. 

Nines, as he walked around to the passenger side, held back as best as he could from smiling, bordering on laughing, at Gavin’s display.

When he opened the door, Nines was met with quite the surprise.

Judging from the disorganized and unclean appearance of Gavin’s desk—not to mention judging based off of Gavin himself—Nines had expected similar levels of upkeep from his vehicle. The exterior had been a relief to Nines, impressed him even. The light smile that was on his face had been completely wiped away with the most impassioned expression he had shown to date. 

_Disgust._

Emptied paper bags of fast food, dotted with grease stains. Half-emptied bottles of Gatorade or RedBull scattered across the floor. Random receipts of varying lengths thrown across the dashboard. Dark coffee stains on both his seat and the passenger seat. The prominent chemical stench of nicotine and fumes.

It was nearly unbearable.

“Perhaps we should find an alternative method of transportation.”

“Just suck it up, neat freak. We’ve got places to be,” Gavin remarked curtly, rolling his eyes.

Nines lowered himself into the passenger seat at a sloth's pace, trying to delicately squeeze his taller body around all the trash without touching any of it. He failed, however, grimacing with every minor thing that he collided with. After finally placing himself down, closing the door shut and fastening his seat belt, he turned to Gavin, whose expression had been identified as a blend of 23% disbelief and 77% impatience.

“All ready to go now,” he said, with a forced smile that could have fooled absolutely nobody.

Gavin only grunted in affirmation, turning the ignition and starting up his car.

. . .

“So where the hell are we actually goin’?”

Gavin hadn’t been driving for very long; they hadn’t even exited the downtown area. The only words spoken came from Nines, directing Gavin towards the general direction of the home in which their suspect lived, and asking Gavin to “please extinguish that cigarette,” several times, to no avail.

“We’re headed towards the Silver Sky apartment complexes to speak with the primary suspect of a recent homicide case.”

“That far out? Damn, we’ll need some music for this trip then.”

“Actually I’d prefer if we-”

“My car, my rules, tin can,” Gavin said with a grin as he turned up the dial.

Although his car was of a newer model, it still had the technology required to use CDs, much to Nines’ surprise, though it made sense, seeing as Gavin was clearly not very _fond_ of newer technology. He found himself to be perturbed by the loud music that had played over the car’s seemingly endless speakers, shaking not only the entire car and the trash in it, but Nines too.

_I hope somehow I never see you again_

_And if I do it’s at your funeral or better yet_

_I hope the world explodes_

_I hope that we all die_

_We can watch the highlights in hell_

_I hope they’re televised_

“What era is this _ruckus_ from?” Nines asked sarcastically, yelling above the music.

“2019, it's a band called ‘PUP,’ and this ‘ruckus’ was the shit back then,” Gavin yelled back.

“Ah, I see. Of course.” 

“Psh,” Gavin let out with a quick roll of his eyes, turning the music down. “You happy, asshole?”

“Giddy.”

Gavin snorted and shook his head in response, taking in yet another breath with his cigarette, and blowing it out his slightly open window.

No longer needing to direct his partner, as Gavin had fumbled around with his car GPS for just a few seconds, Nines found himself without any necessary task ahead of him, except to wait until they had arrived. Looking around the inside of the car any longer than he already had initially was the last thing he’d wanted to do, so he chose the alternative view outside of the car. 

He watched the Detroit roads pass by and with him, the flow of traffic moving like opposing streams. Granted, they were _especially_ _irritable_ streams, latent with people yelling out their window at other drivers, jaywalkers, some vehicles blasting music far more detestable than Gavin’s taste and drivers that apparently were never taught to use their directional signals. There's no way they’d just choose to not use them, right?

Finding only disrest in what laid below, he elected to instead find something, anything, in the sky that could keep him preoccupied. 

But there was nothing to it. It was blue, and there were a few clouds. Not even the sun was in sight from where he was looking.

With a sigh, Nines looked down from the blue and closed his eyes.

He sat there for a while with his eyes closed, sitting up straight at an inhumane 90 degree angle, finding temporary peace from within himself; the time was spent giving his processors and internal functions a short break.

Until he heard Gavin humming.

It was quiet. Not quiet enough for Nines to not pick up on his auditory receptors, but small enough to the point that he hadn’t realized Gavin had _been_ doing it for a bit now. The key was off, atonal, and he slightly broke up the melody in a way that seemed _intentional —_ but something about it left Nines perplexed, his LED left spinning on yellow. He hadn’t felt bothered by it though, in fact it felt somewhat...charming? No. No, it must be something sourced in morbid intrigue, or pity for his poor tune. That made more sense. 

Yet, he couldn’t help but listen either way.

. . .

Gavin paused in humming along with the music to take in another inhalation from his now very short cigarette. He coughed upon exhaling the smoke before returning to his song, and glanced slightly to the right, looking for the ashtray he had placed in between the driver and passenger’s seats.

His eyes met Nines’ for a short moment, who had been staring at Gavin for a long time now, before returning his gaze back to the road, abruptly ending his humming.

His face heated up into a soft red.

“The fuck you lookin’ at?”

It caught Nines by surprise, breaking the trance he was in.

“Oh- my apologies. I didn’t mean to stare,” he said flatly, turning his head back to the road.

“Uh-huh…” Gavin trailed off. “Y’know, it’s funny. I totally forgot you were here with how quiet you got. Connor never seems to shut up these days.”

Yeah, it was definitely pity that Nines had felt for Gavin’s defective humming. Charming? As if.

“How perfect for you it must be then, that I am not him.”

“Oh, totally. Just somethin’ about him that’s so especially bitchy. He was kinda like that when we first met, but now it’s just on another level...yeah, he’s the last android I’d ever want to work with, not that I’d ever choose an android partner in the first place, y’know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Nines stated with abrupt intensity, leaving the two in silence and no humming this time. Gavin’s face heated up again as he bit at his lip.

He interrupted the peace yet again, asking “S-so...what do we know about the case?”

“Hank and _Connor_ ,” Nines said with emphasis, “only had the opportunity to investigate the crime scene the moment it was called in. Their reports indicate that there was a murdered human man found 4 days ago in his house. There seemed to be no signs of a break in however, so it's suspected to be a domestic problem. We’re interviewing his lover of 4 years, who lived separately in an apartment. The two recently became engaged as well, according to his family.”

“Four years? Damn, no wonder she murdered him.”

“We don’t know that yet.”

“Look, I’ve been in the business for a while now, it was obviously her. She probably got sick of him, got scared of being with the same guy, and couldn’t see another way out. I’d feel the same way if I was stuck with somebody that long.”

“I’d hope you wouldn’t murder the person you’re engaged to.”

“God, no, not that part. I couldn’t stick around with a girl for that long, never been my thing.”

“Perhaps you’ll do swimmingly when it comes to asking her questions then, since you understand her so well.”

“It _always_ goes ‘swimmingly’ when I’m doin it. I’ve been a detective by myself for a good amount of years now, this ain’t nothin’ new.”

Nines felt doubtful of Gavin’s words, becoming more and more skeptical of everything he said, even when his sarcastic tone wasn’t obvious.

“We’re almost there,” Gavin said, “I just wish I- FUCK I forgot my coffee at my desk!” And not even a second later, “Okay, real quick detour, there’s a small place nearby, according to the GPS.”

“Detec- Gavin, we don’t have the time.”

“My car, my rules, buddy.”

Nines sighed.

. . .

“It’s the one on the left at the end of this hall,” Nines said, walking ahead, while Gavin strolled behind with his new coffee, taking frequent sips.

“Her name is Georgia Cappelletti, but just call her Ms. Cappe-”

“I know what the fuck I’m doing. Just let me handle it, you can watch,” Gavin whispered, as they approached the door. “Here, you can knock on the door,” he said, sliding out of the way with both hands opened wide, gesturing towards it.

Nines rolled his shoulders, made a gentle fist with his hand, and knocked against the door to the apartment.


	3. Chapter 3

“Hello? Who is that?” a voice called through the white wood.

“Detroit Police, ma’am.”

“I’ll be right there!”

The two listened close with their ears practically against the door. Gavin realized there was no point just a moment later, since he couldn’t hear anything, but also because he knew his supreme android buddy cop was built for this exact kind of thing. Less work for him, so he didn’t mind. His hearing had never been great anyway, especially not after listening to loud garage rock for more than half of his life.

When the door opened, after a few unlocking and latch sounds, they were met by a young, very attractive woman. She had curly, dark, brown hair, freckles and strong eyebrows, but she was short, with a weak smile.

“Good morning,” she said, looking up at Nines.

“We’re here about your fiance’s murder.”

_What the fuck?_ Gavin thought, turning his head and marvelling at Nines’ _delicate_ word choice.

“What he means to say is that we’re here to ask you _questions_ about what happened to Mr. Costa, if you have the time,” Gavin said with the soft, cautious, voice that he saved exclusively for work. 

Throughout the years, he had found that most people opened up more easily to a gentle presence, and while he had no interest in acting gentle outside of his work with suspects or victims, he had found it to be a paramount skill to learn in this field. However, this was clearly a tactic that had been removed after the RK800 model, since Nines was not anywhere _close_ to gentle.

“I should’ve been expecting you,” she muttered, looking down, the smile on her face faltering for a moment. “Sure-sure, come in,” Georgia nodded as she stepped aside, her hospitable facade returning, though it wasn’t quite as bright.

“Thank you, Ms. Cappelletti,” Gavin said, taking the lead, with Nines trailing close behind.

The apartment looked _too_ inconspicuous for Gavin’s liking. It was bland, overall. Terribly small as well. Teal blue walls, white and gray furniture, dark wood panel flooring. Gavin recalled this part of Detroit becoming overrun with gentrification, so it made sense that it looked like an Ikea magazine cover to him. It was definitely lived-in though, as there were minor things out of place from the picture-perfect ideal, such as the flattening of couch pillows from use over time, a lamp’s shade being off center a bit, or even what seemed to be small stains on the doormat. Still, it was far too immaculate for Gavin to not feel suspicious; especially considering the short debriefing Nines gave him on the case. The man she was dating for 4 years, and became engaged to, died 4 days ago and she isn’t a complete mess?

“So, what are your names, if I can ask?” Cappelletti inquired once they were all inside.

“Detective Gavin Reed and RK900,” Nines blurted out faster than Gavin could respond.

“Oh, you’re Gavin Reed?” she questioned, causing Gavin to whip his head around and look at her in confusion.

“Do I know you?”

“No no, it’s just that I’ve heard about you before and...I didn’t expect you to be the type of person to work with an android, is all!”

It took an unbelievable amount of willpower for Gavin to swallow the aimless frustration that lit inside of him, without any trace of the effort, but he had an act of his own to keep up, and a job to do.

“It’s something I’m working on,” he grinned, just a little too hard.

“Ahh, I see. Same here though; getting used to androids being a part of everyday life like they’re human has been a hard change for me too!” she exclaimed, swiftly walking ahead of Gavin and Nines. “Would you two like anything to drink by the way? Or...I mean would you like anything to drink, Detective Reed? I don’t have anything for androids, sorry.”

“Do not worry about me, Miss Cappelletti. I have no need for drinks anyway.”

“Ah, right.”

“No, thank you, I’m covered,” Gavin said, waving his nearly empty coffee cup. “However, if I could have a moment to speak with my... _partner_ alone, that would be great,” the word “partner” came out as if Gavin had gulped down poison.

“Uhh sure, just meet me in the living room whenever you’re ready,” she shrugged, tilting her head in the direction of it and walked into the room, not that it was far.

“Thank you for your patience, ma’am.”

With that, Gavin turned on his heels to Nines and glared at him, motioning him violently towards the front door.

“If you’re suggesting that I leave, I must decline. I believe that it would not be a wise, nor cautious choice.”

“Shh, not so fuckin loud, dipshit,” Gavin quietley yelled—which was not very quiet at all—with a finger pressed to his lips.

“Then what do you recommend, o _infamous_ Gavin Reed?” Nines whispered, the usual lack of emotion in his tone still managing to travel through his quieted, yet sarcastic, words.

“She’s not gonna say anything with you around, so just go fuck off outside or something. Let me handle this.”

“As I’ve said before, I th-”

“Just fucking listen to me for once! Let me ask the questions, Nines,” Gavin insisted.

His LED went straight to yellow the moment Gavin cut him off. Gavin never thought much of the small lights built into the side of every android's head, but damn was it a blessing that Nines kept his. Most androids nowadays just tore theirs off, trying to integrate themselves into society as though they were human (it was a pain for Gavin when trying to hook up with girls at the bar since he could never tell the difference). But he would never know what the fuck was going on in Nines’ head if it weren’t for that LED. Anytime he tried to get a read on him, it was like analyzing the face of a stone. A _boulder_.

What confused Gavin even more was when the android looked at him like _that_ ; when they first met, then with that...damn stare in the car. There’s no frickin’ way he was programmed to do that shit. Gavin had replayed that first day in his head several times, but only after Tina recommended it—God only knows where he’d be now if he didn’t have her to cool him off. He _may_ have overreacted a _little_ , but there was no way he would ever apologize to either of the RK’s. Nahh, fuck that. But even after thinking it all over, he still couldn’t get to the bottom of why Nines looked at him like _that_ , as if he cared about Gavin. As if he _knew_ the real Gavin Reed. He learned a long time ago that the only reason people will pretend to care about you is to get something out of you, but what in the hell would a brand new, top-of-the-line android want from him? And why the hell was he so concerned with proving himself to the damn thing?

“Fine then, _Detective_. I’ll be here, far from you and Miss Cappelletti, just like you want. On the condition that I will listen in, for educational, as well as analytical, purposes,” Nines said with a firm push to his voice.

“Fuck, fine, sure. Just do it discreetly, and out of sight, please,” Gavin begged, feeling already pushed past his limit of patience. And the day wasn’t even halfway over yet.

“Wow, I never expected to hear you plead for anything, especially from me.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get used to it, asshole,” he said, waving off Nines and walking to the living room. “Fuckin’ androids,” he muttered under his breath.

_Okay, smiles back on,_ Gavin thought to himself, taking a deep, leveling breath before walking into the living room, and into Miss Cappelletti’s line of sight. She looked drained, from what Gavin could see, her thick hair concealing some of her face.

Now that Gavin had fully entered the room, he was able to get a clear view on what he was working with. Another crucial skill he had learned as a detective: a suspect's living space reflects their mentality just as much as their physicality. However, he wasn’t sure what to make of her seemingly new furniture. It all had a _very_ modern feeling to it, incorporating a lot of metal and geometric shapes. Most of it appeared to have just recently been purchased, save for a few things here and there, such as some of the small knick knacks she had shelved around the room, souvenirs, perhaps.

“Everything alright?” she asked, returning to her full composure as she was when they first saw her open the door.

“Of course, I’ve got it under control, don’t worry. Working with androids is something we all gotta...get used to.”

Gavin could’ve sworn he heard what sounded like a snicker from behind him.

_Bastard._

“More importantly, how have you been?” Gavin asked, sitting down in a chair across from the white couch where Georgia sat, taking the final sip from his coffee before setting it down.

“It’s...it’s been crazy, honestly. It hasn’t really hit me that he’s gone yet. Like, I’ll start writing out a text to him, as if everything’s fine, or I’ll just think of him when I wake up, and then I remember that he’s gone. I feel sad for a moment, but then I just keep going on anyway — sorry if that was a lot...I just haven't really gotten the chance to talk to anyone about this.”

“Have you dealt with this kind of loss before?”

“Yeah...yeah you’re probably right, it’s that kind of thing. People keep telling me that everyone deals with grief in their own way, so I guess this is just my way. I have gone through this before, but this just feels...different in a way I can’t express.”

Gavin hummed in response, not sure what else to say. He didn’t really care all that much about how she was feeling, but she seemed surprisingly non-suspicious so far.

“So, do you have any idea who would’ve done something like that to Mr. Costa? Or why somebody would want him dead?” Gavin asked, trying to sound as sincere as he possibly could.

She barely reacted to the questions physically, but her eyebrows seemed to twitch a bit upon hearing his name.

“Nobody that I know personally, but...I don’t know, he was always talking about his problems with people at work. If I could point you in any direction, I’d say at his job. He was always making enemies because he’s the grandson of the company’s owner.”

“Do you know how somebody could’ve gotten into his house?”

“No, only he and I have keys,” she said, before visibly jumping to life for a moment, “but he also did have a habit of leaving his windows open often, especially when it was hot! His central air unit has always been a bit busted on the first floor of his house, so that was his solution rather than actually getting it fixed!”

...but it was March, not hot at all.

She seemed unsuspicious for the most part. Judging from her demeanor, body language, even her eye movement: she had only told the truth; but she seemed eager to draw suspicion away from her.

“And where were you when it happened?”

“Oh, I was here. I had only recently gotten a lot of this furniture, so I was decorating all day.”

_Damn, there’s no easy way to disprove that. And it looks new enough, so asking for a receipt would be pointless..._

_...Wait, wasn’t she just getting engaged? Wouldn’t she have moved in with him? Why buy new furniture?_

“Why is it that you two live separately by the way, if you’ve been together for so long?” Gavin asked, shuffling to sit forward in his seat

“I’ve always needed to have a space to myself, even when I was younger. We were going to move in together soon though, with the engagement and all...”

_Gotcha._

“Is there anything else that you want to add that you think might help with the investigation?” Gavin said with a smile.

“No, I don’t think I’d be of much help, sorry,” she sighed, leaning back into the cushions.

Gavin didn’t move or say anything though. He just sat there with his gaze cast low, biting into his cheek.

“I think there’s something you’re not telling me,” Gavin challenged, looking directly up into her brown eyes. 

Georgia just stared at him. Blank-faced

“Nines!-”

Gavin stood up, but couldn’t even move to prepare for when Georgia rose suddenly from her seat and grabbed the rectangular metal lamp to her side, slamming it against Gavin’s head, in one fluid swing. He was able to support himself from falling back over the chair, but faltered, collapsing into the chair instead. 

For some reason he wasn’t able to get back up, as much as he wanted to catch Georgia as she ran out of the room and out of the door.

_Fuck_ , why was he so dizzy? 

_Done in by a small girl that easy? Just one hit? You’re better than that Gavin. Fucking get up!_

But he couldn’t.

_Why was Nines not there to stop her? Where was he? Why wasn’t he there? Did he actually leave? No, that idiot wouldn’t dare._

Out of the corner of his eye, Gavin could see, from the open archway of the living room, what _had_ to have been Nines running out of another room deeper in the apartment and into the living room.

“What happened?” the android shouted, his LED blindingly red. Was it really a shout though? Gavin couldn’t really tell, especially with the way that beaming red light put him on edge, but _fuck_ did it not help the killer headache he suddenly got.

“She ran,” was all he could muster up, weakly pointing in the direction of the apartment’s entrance from where he sat.

And then Nines was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle up, it’s about to get angsty


	4. Chapter 4

Nines darted through the open doorway, LED flitting to yellow as he looked around.

—

**PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:** Pursue and Detain 

**OBJECTIVE** : Locate Suspect

**SUSPECT.001** = Georgia Robin Cappelletti

**SCAN** (6th floor)

**SEARCH** = trace.suspect.001

**…**

**…**

**…**

**RESULTS:**

-perspiration on stair railing

\- dna.suspect.001 = MATCH

-open window to fire escape

\- fingerprints.suspect.001 = MATCH

-footsteps moving down the stairs

\- calculate: weight = IMPROBABLE

-perfumated aroma from window

\- scent.suspect.001 = MATCH

**RECONSTRUCT** (search) = trace.suspect.001

_Georgia rushed out of her apartment and over to the stairwell closest to her door, holding onto the stair railing as she looked down at what seemed to be an infinite expanse of steps till the ground floor. She turned her head sharply to the right and then the left, towards the window at the end of the hallway, right by her apartment door. Bolting towards the daylight that shone through the glass, she rushed her hands to unlock the window and went down the fire escape._

— 

Nines stepped onto the metal grating of the fire escape, scanning the faces of everybody within sight below and searching for any irregularities in movement on the sidewalks, until he found Georgia having just dropped off the last ladder. She looked up at the 6th floor window where she came from, their eyes meeting for only a moment. Her face contorted in fear and panic at the sight, while his remained emotionless, yet determined. Georgia immediately began to sprint down the street, and Nines continued his pursuit, crawling down the fire escape. His every movement was precise, each limb working in tandem to propel himself down faster, closer to her. Closer to his target.

——————————————————————————————————————————

_Mmmmm yeah fuck that, not gonna try that again._

Gavin fell back into the chair of Georgia whatever-her-last-name-is’ living room, after trying to get his body to stand up for more than 2 seconds, for what felt like the thousandth time.

_Damn, it’s been a while since I’ve been out of it like this. Who knew that fancy fuckin’ lamp could knock me out so fast. Who knew Georgia had that much arm strength either? Like what the hell was that!? Maybe I should get back to the gym so I can throw punches that hard...I haven't really been in a long time...ever since my card got declined for that membership renewal..._

Gavin’s thoughts trailed off as he was hit with an intense, sudden wave of exhaustion.

_Shit, shit, shit, nope, can’t pass out. That’s probably not good._

Despite the fight he tried to put up, his eyes felt increasingly heavy with each thought that passed by. However, his rapidly increasing heart rate might just be enough to keep him awake at this rate.

_Okay, shit, it’s fine, you’re fine, you’re okay, you’re gonna get through the day. Not your first time getting freaked out like this, and definitely not your first concussion. Sure, both at the same time ain’t really ideal, but you’re strong. You’re independent! You’re Gavin fuckin’ Reed! No need for anyone to worry, not even yourself. You can manage perfectly fine on your own._

He forced his eyes open, scared of what would come if he fell asleep, but almost equally as scared to find out what would come next if he didn’t. The apartment was dead silent, save for the sound of Gavin’s labored breathing.

It had been a long while since he’d suffered an anxiety attack as bad, and as sudden, as this one was making itself out to be. They’d been progressively coming back at a violent rate lately, for reasons he didn’t care to think about one bit; didn’t have the desire to think about something as _insignificant_ as his feelings, and especially didn’t have the time or patience. However, here he was, practically forced to do nothing _but_ think about his feelings.

His anxiety attacks, through many years of experiencing them, had become less frequent and less intense as he grew older; but as a child, they were a struggle that he encountered far too often. When he was younger, he’d never gotten along very well with his parents—who’d always expected the world from him. Sure, he was the youngest heir of a prestigious, wealthy family, and therefore had the least pressure put on him for success, but that _definitely_ didn’t mean he had an easy time growing up. It got especially harder when his older sister ran away. Not only was the one part of his family that made him happy gone with no goodbyes, but all the attention was turned towards his brother and him. Needless to say, that limelight, and everything else that it brought, left him much worse off than before.

He was free from them now though, cutting off all ties from each of them, even changing his last name. He was past all that trauma, all that pain, all that suffering that his parents instilled in him. He was _especially_ over those dumb anxiety attacks, diminishing them to almost a mere few seconds of intense distress or panicked thoughts.

However, this one was not so small of a beast.

_“_ Fuck,” he spat through strained breath, his vice grip-like hands tightening to the arms of the chair as his grasp on reality loosened. His face flushed red, grimacing intensely, as tears and sweat began to slowly spill down his face, the pounding of his heart ringing in his ears like church bells. He couldn’t remember the last time he cried while not being black-out drunk.

_Don’t think about that shit, you want nothing to do with them, and they want nothing to do with you. It’s not your fault they didn’t love you, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault. You tried, and they didn’t want anything from you, that’s fine. You don’t need them, you don’t need them, you don’t need them. Fuck, you don’t! You really don’t! You’ve been fine all these years! You know better than to feel any regret for those bitches, dumbass! Dipshit!_

He tried to push himself up out of his seat again, eager to turn his attention anywhere else, and he stood firmly for 3 seconds. That one extra second, being the most grounding moment for Gavin in the past few minutes, was snatched from him just as quickly as it came, as he was met with the next most grounding moment for him. The literal ground.

“Motherfucker!” he screamed, prone, on the hardwood floor; it was a miracle that he was able to react fast enough to move his hands to break his fall and protect his head from further injury.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

With a loud thud, Nines dropped down from the fire escape at the maximum height he was physically able to jump from without sustaining injury, calculating the perfect landing within nanoseconds. If any human were to attempt to drop as far as he had, they’d certainly fracture or break both of their legs, or potentially worse. However, Nines was completely fine. In fact, he’d already started to run straight in Georgia’s direction from where he had last seen her, having scanned for her one last time before jumping to the sidewalk below.

— 

**NEW OBJECTIVE:** Catch suspect.001

— 

Fortunately, it was just past noon, so the sidewalks, and roads, weren’t as absurdly packed with traffic as they usually were in the area. The expansive Silver Sky apartment complexes were just a small part of a grand remodeling occurring throughout this part of Detroit. The exceptionally clean streets were lined with colorful new stores and restaurants, most being hyper-modernized corporate-chains, with dashes of local businesses sticking it out, refusing to sell out. Nobody was out on their lunch break yet, and factoring in Georgia’s physique, Nines calculated that capturing her would be a cinch, regardless of the head-start she had.

— 

**SUSPECT.001 DISTANCE:** appx. 114m

**ESTIM. CAPTURE TIME** (suspect.001):00:01:42

— 

This might even be the easiest thing he’s had to do since being awoken, which is something he really needed right about now. Talking with people? Trying to “fit in?” Being gentle? The RK900 android was not built for those things, and Nines found them to be exceedingly difficult to execute efficiently and appropriately. Connor could try to teach him how to be ‘human,’ but that just wasn’t him, nor was it what he was made to be. But chasing after criminals? Forcing people to comply? Succeeding at all costs? Fulfilling his designed maximum potential? Finally getting the opportunity to be useful made him feel excited, made him feel _alive_ for the first time. He couldn’t help but smile a bit at the thought as he charged ahead.

— 

**WARNING:** Pedestrian collective blockade ahead

**…**

**…**

**…**

**OVERRIDDEN —** Continue Pursuit

**…**

**…**

**…**

**(update)WARNING:** Group identified as anti-android protestors

—

“Damn,” Nines muttered. As much as he could run all day long, his chances of running straight through _that_ specific kind of crowd without any hindrance w very unlikely.

— 

**ROUTE REDIRECTION:** Leftalleyway 40m ahead

**…**

**(update)ESTIM. SUSPECT.001 DISTANCE:** 230m

**…**

**…**

**PROBABILITY OF MISSION SUCCESS:** 20%

**…**

**...**

**ENGAGE** (quadrupedal configuration)

— 

Upon turning into the alleyway, Nines had not slowed down one bit, maintaining a consistent, extreme, velocity. He dropped his hands to the cement in front of him, his chassis distorting upwards from the bottom of his back within a second. His form-fitting, CyberLife jacket ripped across his back and shoulders as he clawed his way forward at unimaginable speeds for an ordinary human physique. He wasn’t a human, though. He was an android; and he looked _beastly_.

His chest bent low to the ground as he moved, all limbs working in tandem to substantially increase his speed. Reaching the end of the alley, Nines swiftly scaled the short brick wall beside him, continuing his pursuit from the rooftops, out of sight. No android protests or pedestrians, nor any panic to cause from his appearance, could get in his way anymore. The RK900 prototype was built to be the perfect deviant hunter, an apex predator, and though his purpose had changed, _he_ hadn’t.

— 

**(update)ESTIM. SUSPECT.001 DISTANCE:** 300m

**ESTIM. TRAVEL TIME** (suspect.001): 00:02:45

**…**

**…**

**PROBABILITY OF MISSION SUCCESS:** 78%

— 

——————————————————————————————————————————-

“Third time’s the charm...”

Gavin had now raised himself up to his knees from the wood floor, propping himself up on the palms of his hands as well, but still hadn’t quite been able to convince his upper body to stay upright. Channeling all of his energy and focus into standing up, as pathetic as the very concept was to him, helped keep him awake, as well as subdued his nerves, for now. If there was one good thing about this situation, it was that nobody would see him like this. He’d figure this out on his own, as usual.

After a few deep breaths and one final push, he managed to raise himself up, but the momentum made his head pound and swirl like a washing machine, dropping him back to the floor, hands sprawling out to break the fall yet again — at least he could get that part right.

“...or not...Fuck.”

_So, here we are. 36-years-old and practically trapped to the floor from what should’ve barely been anything more than a bump, especially knowing what I’ve been hit by before. Maybe that weird coffee fucked up my head more? It’s never been this shitty before…but man was that stuff like red ice for some reason. Note to self: Never buy coffee from that place again, holy fuck…_

_Okay, okay, plan B: crawl to the car. Standing is clearly too much of a struggle, for some fuckin’ reason. What a great day to forget my phone in the car. Honestly, a real cherry on top._

He lifted himself up to his knees and hands yet again, wiped the wet streaks on his face where his tears had now dried, and continued his trek to the car with a determined focus in his eyes, staring ahead.

Gavin fumbled his way out of the living room, sense of balance still horribly askew, bumping into the side of the open archway leading to the hallway towards the door, low grunting noises scattered here and there along the way. When he turned to look at the end of the hall, after a solid few minutes of struggling, however, he found that the door was closed.

On most days, Gavin would praise the creation of a door that automatically locks and closes itself, desperately needing such a thing for his own apartment; however, today, he silently damned the thing to hell for about 3 minutes straight.

_You know what, I’m just gonna sit here for a bit._

He maneuvered his body around to sit against the hallway, staring ahead into the deep teal shade of the walls for a few moments. As Gavin sat there, taking deep breaths to ease himself, his heart rate climbed up as he tried to calm down, realizing the reality of his situation. He was stuck.

He leaned his head back, and groaned to the ceiling. 

_Fuckin’_ — _so much for having a ‘partner.’ Plastic prick._

Gavin knew Nines _had_ to be running after the suspect. He was glad that he wouldn’t be getting chewed up by Fowler for letting the suspect, almost definitely the murderer, get away, but damn what a piss poor time for Gavin to be rendered completely useless — not that he didn’t feel moderately useless most of the time. It would make no sense for the android to just leave him for no reason, right? It didn’t add up; wasn’t what he was programmed for either.

...So why did it scare him anyway? 

Why did the thought make him sweat so much right now? Was Nines just another failed partner for the infamous asshole Gavin Reed? Did he really give up on him that quickly? Was Gavin really that unbearable? Did everybody really hate him that much?

_Of course they do. Useless piece of shit, this is why they’re replacing you. He’s especially better than you, so why even try to impress him? You’re nothing — can’t even stand on your own two feet, after all the shit you’ve been through, too. He saw how useless you are, how you can’t even do your job right. The job he practically saved you from losing? Did you really think he cared for you? Even a little? After every awful thing you said to him too? You’re no better than you were before. You haven't changed one bit, you’re still a fucking useless crybaby._

_Fuck…_

_Just do something useful for once. Be worth something for a second. Is that so fucking hard for you? Maybe everyone wouldn’t abandon you if you were worth even a second of their time. Why’d you stay, Gavin? Huh, dumbass? Why’d you stay when everybody else left you? Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid._

_Nobody is coming back for you. Your sister isn’t coming back for you, and neither is he. He’s not coming back. They’re not coming back, you stupid fuck._

_——————————————————————————————————————————-_

Nines could smell her from the roofs. His extremely enhanced odor receptors held onto her trace like fangs. The once-flowery aroma she at first exuded had become very faint by now, largely being overwhelmed by the smell of her sweat; her panic. Humans couldn’t run forever, whereas Nines was more than willing to go all day. His once slight smirk had now become a wicked, yet innocent, grin. That feeling of the breeze blowing along with him, the warmth of the sun against his body, reaching into the ripped parts of his jacket; they made him feel like a part of the world, not just a product of it. He was finally able to fully express himself physically in the only way he had known: with ferocity and prowess — and it was unbelievably cathartic for him. Not only had he needed to succeed, but he _wanted_ it as well. Desperately.

The trail began to grow fainter, as it seemed Georgia had _finally_ given up on running, despite Nines’ efforts to remain out of sight for a while now. They’d both ended up further away from the remodeled parts of the city, entering the unfinished, work-in-progress parts of the project, primarily serving as a lower-class living district for now. The buildings, thankfully, had been tightly connected throughout Nines’ pursuit, though he was prepared to jump several feet if required. Peering over the roof of the brick building he sat upon, Nines spotted Georgia leaning against a bench, rapidly tapping away at her phone. He jumped down just a few feet behind Georgia and his spinal region straightened out as he dropped, ending his quadrupedal figuration. 

As he landed, she jumped up and gasped, snapping her head around to meet his eye.

“I recommend that you comply, Miss Cappelletti.”

Georgia hadn’t even remained long enough to hear him say her name, running off the moment she realized that he was still in pursuit of her.

Nines slowly shook his head with a devious, tight-lipped smile, beginning to only briskly walk after her. He knew there was no way she could run anymore, at least not for more than a few seconds. And it appeared Nines was correct, as she slowed to an exhausted jog and turned a corner into a wide alley between two tall buildings. 

There was no escape. Running anymore was futile, he thought she’d know better than that by now. It was a habit Nines had picked up on in the few weeks he’d been alive: the complete lack of grace humanity had when it came to failure. Always trying to accomplish dreams or goals — their ambition he admired — but sometimes, they’d fail. Often, they’d fail. And usually when they failed, they’d only keep failing. They never knew when to give up, never knew how to accept that they just weren’t up to the task. It was pathetic, but endearing to Nines nonetheless in a pitiful way. Perhaps that's why he couldn’t help but retain the hauntingly excited expression painted on his face as he walked towards Georgia Cappelletti, finally backed into a corner where she couldn’t run: exactly where he wanted her.his body

“Now, are you going to keep _trying_ to get away? I expected you to be a bit smarter,” he said, the last part coming out in a genuinely disappointed tone.

She actually responded this time, though the softness in her voice was long gone, overcome with exhaustion and dehydration. “I’ll run as much as I can. As far as I need to go; anywhere to get the _fuck_ away from you.”

“I don’t believe you have that option anymore, Miss Cappelletti. I’ve heard there’s a saying that ‘the innocent never run,’ so I’m sure you’re aware what kind of light this puts you in.” He began to walk towards her slowly, producing handcuffs from his coat pockets. “Now, this can be very easy, or this can be very hard. I highly recommend you choose the ‘very easy,’ option, as the alternative cannot guarantee that you will not be harmed. However, I don’t mind either way.” He enjoyed this. Greatly. It was written all over his face, thick within the teasing lilt to his voice. Somewhere deep inside of him tinged with guilt at each word, but he was numb to it. _This_ was what he was meant to do. _This_ was his calling. Nothing had felt better in all of his short existence.

“What’ll it be, _Georgia_?”

An unfamiliar, out of sight, voice butted in. “Neither, fucker.”

Nines was then met with the cold touch of a metal object against his bare synth skin, in between the tears of his jacket’s white cloth and black undershirt. The sensation felt like it hurt at first, due to the shock of the object’s temperature against his warm body, until Nines processors caught up, identifying the object as a taser. His body jolted, convulsing for a few moments, before dropping heavily to the ground, LED stuck on red.

— 

**WARNING:** Several systems malfunctioning

**DANGER LEVEL:** 72%

**STATUS:** Temporarily paralyzed

...

**DIAGNOSTICS TEST** (run)

…

…

…

— 

As Nines lay prone, occasionally jittering, on the dirty asphalt, he was able to identify his attacker as another woman. Her face looked familiar to him, though his database was inaccessible in his current state. He made note of her wide frame, short, red, hair, and her green eyes. The two women bent down to look at Nines, and he saw it. An LED — she was an android. A TW400 unit, he’d luckily been able to gather from pre-existing knowledge. Her LED shone a dim yellow, but cycled back to blue within a few moments. 

“Is it dead?” Georgia asked.

“No, just paralyzed for a bit.”

The two backed away from Nines and stood to face each other instead.

— 

…

…

**SYSTEM REPAIR MODE INITIATED**

**ESTIM. TIME REQUIRED:** 6 minutes

—

“We need to hide. Now, Georgia. The effect doesn’t last forever”

“...Okay…” she sniffled, tears beginning to stream down her freckled cheeks.

“Hey, come on,” the red-haired android said, bringing Georgia into a hug, “save the waterworks for _anywhere_ else, please.”

“I know, I know...just,” she backed out from the hug and wiped at her tears, “ _fuck_ , I was so scared.”

“Aren’t you glad I set myself as an emergency contact on your phone now?”

Georgia rolled her eyes and scoffed. She couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, lets go.”

And with that, they ran off from the alley and out of Nines’ sight. Luckily, his basic functions, such as his auditory and visual receptors, remained intact throughout his paralysis, as well as his memory; this left him with a more complicated case than he first expected.

_What did a construction model android have to do with her?_

Nines pondered on the idea as his functions slowly restored themselves, and he raised himself up, unable to draw any firm conclusions yet.

_An accomplice? A friend?...Perhaps even a lover?_

He rubbed at his head, as though he were inflicted with a migraine. As he entered back onto the tree-lined sidewalk, taking a seat on the same bench Georgia had been standing over less than 20 minutes ago. Though he wasn’t too keen on not having any solid proof or evidence to show for all his work, he couldn’t pick up Georgia’s scent anymore. For now, he could go back to the apartment to look fo-

_Gavin._

_…_

Nines ran up the building’s stairs, cursing himself for being so thoughtless. For getting so caught up in chasing down Georgia. For leaving his partner behind. He was _especially_ angry with himself for enjoying it all so much. Racing after his target like an _animal,_ delighting in his complete loss of restraint. The idea of it left him feeling something like regret, but he couldn’t quite identify it precisely. All that he knew was that he _felt_ it inside of himself deep down, and it was dark.

As he reached the 6th floor, running down the hall to Georgia’s door, Nines felt too terrified to think of what he may discover behind that door. He ran for Georgia, _despite_ seeing the critical state Gavin was in. Barely able to speak, struggling to even move. Of course, Nines immediately assumed the worst.

He should’ve known something was up from what he’d seen further _inside_ the apartment, earlier that day. While Gavin was busy with _his_ end of the questioning, Nines couldn’t help but snoop around for further details; he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing to help. He felt like an idiot for not piecing together the wide queen-sized bed, the starkly larger pieces of clothing in Georgia’s closet; _especially_ the thirium-safe drinks Georgia had in her fridge after claiming she had nothing for androids. So much for being an “Elite Android Detective.”

He damned himself as he stood in front of the door and forced it open in one swift motion, practically tearing it off of its hinges.

The lights were all off, probably automatic. The sun had begun to set, light beaming through the few windows of the apartment. And there he was, illuminated by the early gold of the sun, sitting just a short distance from the door. Back against the painted wall, hugging his legs close, face hidden in his knees. Muffled noises emanating from where he hid.

“Gavin-”

And then he looked up, tears streaming down his face. Eyes, red and puffy. Breath shuddering upon meeting Nines’ face. A deep frown on his face. He opened his mouth as he recognized the android before him, lips struggling to form into a weak smile. His voice sounded broken, fractured from the sobbing between his words.

“You came back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes...I’d say it gets happier, but it really doesn’t :/ WE’LL GET THERE SOMEday, just *not* within this work


	5. Chapter 5

He was _still_ crying.

Nines could tell he’d made a really honest effort to try and mask it, but he knew better. The way his breathing had stifled at random, the dissonant beat of his heart, the occasional, aggressive wipe to his eyes. Perhaps it would’ve fooled him any other time, any other day, but not today; not after Nines had seen him like _that._

Gavin Reed was many different things, Nines had concurred. He was rash, irritable, selfish, disagreeable, but even Nines could admit, with reluctance, that he was somewhat-clever and not as irredeemably uncouth as he’d originally thought; however, he knew that, through it all, Gavin Reed was best described as an “asshole,” just as Connor had also defined Gavin. But, after seeing him so...utterly miserable Nines wasn’t sure what to think about the man anymore. It confused Nines to no end, constantly looping through his head as he drove, just as his LED had been looping on a crisp yellow for what felt like the entire day. 

They’d been on the road for over an hour now, after Nines had to _take_ Gavin’s keys and _carried_ him to the passenger seat, clearly being in no condition to drive nor walk himself anywhere. Traffic had picked up greatly, to the point where the once-setting sun had almost completely gone below the horizon, the scattered clouds being the only thing moving anymore it seemed. He didn’t mind waiting like this at first — Nines thought of himself as a very patient person — however, this was becoming _unbearable_ even for him. 

_Of course Gavin lives on the opposite end of Detroit._

Nines lived only a few miles away from the apartments where Gavin lived, so he was headed in that direction regardless, but he took public transportation most of the time. Driving a car in a city as populated as Detroit seemed like it would only slow him down, and today he was proven all-too right. If they’d only stopped at the ER for Gavin’s injuries first, like Nines had suggested, then they would’ve been able to miss this complete _mess_ of a roadway.

Upon first entering the car, Gavin was silently insistent on not going to the hospital, profusely shaking his head through the pain that Nines was sure such a drastic movement would cause. He was in no place to disagree with Nines’ indication of seeking medical aid, and Nines knew that although it turned out he _wasn’t_ concussed, as he first feared, he still should almost definitely get professional help. But Nines had listened to him anyway, so Gavin’s apartment it was.

He’d been able to deduce where Gavin lived, not by asking him, but by looking into the DPD’s personal records. There were many other things in the database under Gavin’s name, and even a few case files, but Nines had shown restraint, as tempting as it was to look further into his partner’s past. Those files would _especially_ do nicely right now, to keep Nines’ mind busy and not replaying and thinking of what a long, draining day it was for him emotionally and physically. Nevertheless, he held back as it had clearly been an extremely taxing day for Gavin as well, and Nines owed him more than just a _semblance_ of respect or generosity. After all, Nines did leave Gavin in _this_ state to go stupidly chase after Georgia till the end of time. 

Regret was a fairly new experience for Nines, but he quickly found that he hated it _extremely_ ; how it felt like a virus to his entire system, hacking into each of his basic functions and protocols, practically possessing him. He didn’t have a clue what to do with himself, but he did know that he wanted Gavin to stop crying.

Nines couldn’t help but glance to his right, as he had desperately been trying to avoid doing for the entire time he’d been driving, and found that Gavin was no longer crying — he'd fallen asleep. Nines had to immediately snap his focus back to the road out of fear that he’d stare for too long, even though the car in front of him hadn’t moved in approximately 2 minutes and 13 seconds and wasn’t expected to move again for at least another minute. 

He didn’t want to remember the anguish in Gavin’s eyes when he had first opened Georgia’s door. The moment he heard Gavin’s voice, it was like every line of code that made him the RK900 android broke. Each scan came back inconclusive, every reconstruct led nowhere, he wasn’t even sure how to move anymore. It might’ve been the most awful he had ever felt. 

He hated himself for it. For putting his partner of all people in a state like that. For failing the mission on top of that. He should’ve been better.

_Connor would never leave Hank behind like that. Connor would have never made his partner cry like that. And even if Connor did do something like that, he would know what to say. He’d do better than to just sit near him in silence as he sobbed for hours._

Nines let out another of his deep sighs, finding relief and clarity in the action. 

_Thinking like that won’t fix anything._

He opted to turn on the car’s music system, desperate for a distraction of any sort. Nines made sure to twist the volume knob down first, expecting more of Gavin’s insufferable garage rock, “PUP,” to play upon powering the system.

_They used to all talk down to me_

_And now they're biting their tongues_

_They used to say, "don't quit your day job"_

_Well guess what, I never had one_

Lo and behold, it was just as he’d anticipated: insufferable garage rock.

As violent as both the vocals and instrumentation were, even at a lower volume, there was something that Nines _supposed_ could be found entertaining or pleasing about it. There was a predictability to its erratic patterns, most of the chord progressions repeating over and over, just occasionally playing in different orders or with slight variations. 

After the first few songs played, it appeared that the traffic had finally begun to resolve itself; and although Nines was disappointed that it had taken until the streetlights all flicked on for any progress to be made towards Gavin’s apartment, he found himself in higher spirits. Nines even began to hum quietly along to the music, after analyzing the artist’s style from the few songs he’d heard and some speedy research into the genre.

It was strangely the most at peace he’d felt all day.

. . .

Nines slowly rolled Gavin’s car to a stop in a random parking spot in the lot by his apartment building, having paid the parking fee with a wave of his hand. It was already 6:21PM by now, the moon being in view overhead, amongst the many stars that would be there, if they hadn’t been completely blocked out by the glow of Detroit’s city lights. The apartment complex was not nearly as modern and clean as Silver Sky was, but Nines was still pleasantly surprised by how nice it looked on the outside. Gavin’s actual apartment room was a completely different story that Nines did not even want to _begin_ to think about, anticipating a complete and utter disaster.

He shut the car off with a twist to the key, and pulled it from the ignition. Gavin was still out cold in the passenger seat with his head against the glass window. Nines had turned his head several times to look at him for the rest of the drive, making sure that the music or his own accidental humming wasn’t disturbing Gavin’s rest.

Nines wasn’t sure he was ready to face how Gavin would react when we woke up. His first assumption, and the most probable outcome, was that he’d be met with an angry outburst. His second prediction, and _the worst_ case scenario, was that the outburst would then lead to him telling Nines they were no longer partners. Those had been the two most prevalent expectations Nines had thought up, out of the thousands of others that swarmed in his head as they got closer to the end of their drive. Either way, he was ready to hear whatever Gavin had to say, and was willing to take whatever it is that would be thrown at him, even if it was a fist. Whatever would make Gavin feel better.

Now...he just needed to figure out how to wake Gavin up. The most obvious solution, yet the only one Nines wouldn’t even consider, would be to touch Gavin slightly, or to just shake him a little bit. 

_Maybe the car horn? No, no, bad idea in a parking lot...What if I shake the car a little bit? That would definitely be better than touching him!...however, the car might not like that very much…_

He hummed in thought for a moment after thinking through his options, until it dawned upon him: the radio. Nines had turned it down earlier after he’d seen Gavin stirring just a bit. He knew better than to blast it, but if he incrementally turned the volume knob up by one every 20 seconds, he was sure to eventually wake up Gavin. Sure, it was a tedious idea and maybe a little more complicated than necessary, but Nines couldn’t bring himself to get anywhere too close to Gavin right now.

With a delicate twist to the dial, and a slow push to the ON button, the same PUP CD that had been playing on loop all day resumed. 

It was silent.

_Okay maybe starting at 0 was a bad idea._

Nines jumped the volume up to 7, the music reaching a whisper; then to 15, average speaking level. Gavin moved just a bit, but it showed progress. Such a simple, low-stake challenge made Nines feel more excited than he’d like to say for such a miniscule experiment, but he couldn’t help but feel proud as he increasingly saw Gavin wake up more and more. Until, eventually, his eyes fluttered open, and Nines was back to zero just as the radio’s volume was quickly twisted to as well.

He didn’t say anything.

Neither did Nines.

Perhaps he was still in a bit of a daze? He was probably still waking up and processing his surroundings. Or maybe he actually _was_ severely injured and couldn’t even remember who Nines was? The idea brought a morbid relief to Nines’ mind that set him at ease — being forgotten would be easier than whatever came next. Either way, he’d just patiently wait, without eye contact until Gavin was ready t-

“Hey.”

“...Hi.”

Nines sat there waiting for more. He was waiting for the outburst, all the awful things he’d be called, or waiting for the tears to come back. 

_Please no more tears._

But nothing came. They both sat there in that silence. Maybe they were both waiting. Nines thought for a moment of the possibility.

“Get out of my car.”

There was no anger in his words though, no sadness either. There was just nothing.

“O-okay.”

Nines hadn’t looked at him once, he just opened the car door and threw himself out. Gavin had followed suit a few moments later, opening his door and also throwing himself out, though much more literally. Nines watched as he stumbled for a few moments, supporting himself on the edge of the car’s door.

“Do you need any assistance?”

Gavin had remained with his back facing Nines, standing just outside of the streetlight’s illuminated spot that the car had been parked next to. He cleared his throat before responding, still with a hand firmly grasped to the car door, slamming the door shut in one swift motion.

“No, thank you.”

He took a step into the light, still turned away from Nines. Then he took another step, though it became very clear that his sense of balance was still in poor condition when he began to lean far to the left. Before Nines could process his own movements, he was rushing over to Gavin as the man tried to take another step, slowly tipping over to the right; just about to crash into the asphalt. Nines had caught him in both of his arms, holding Gavin to his chest. 

They looked into each other's eyes, completely by accident, but neither of them broke the contact. Nines LED jumped to yellow as he detected a slight blush on Gavin’s cheeks, a blue hue developing on his own cheeks as well. And then Gavin looked away, his eyes dropping down.

Nines almost dropped him once he realized that he’d held him there for much _much_ longer than was necessary. He swiftly brought Gavin back up to his feet, and took a big step away from him, gazing down to his feet.

“Sorry.”

Gavin hadn’t responded, just took another step, already stumbling again. Nines reluctantly, but just as quickly as before took a big step _back_ to Gavin’s side and threw Gavin’s left arm around his shoulders.

“I apologize for overstepping.” Every word that came out of Nines felt so dangerous to him. They had to perfectly describe his intentions and how he was feeling, but they couldn’t be too overwhelming, and he especially shouldn’t say too much. He wanted to be there for Gavin, but he didn’t know how to do it right. The least he could do was bring Gavin to his apartment door without watching him get an _actual_ concussion even more.

They continued walking on in silence, pressed against each other the whole way through, breaths intermingling in the common air.

Nines’ systems went numb.

. . .

The elevator door opened on the 3rd floor. The two had unraveled for the short few seconds it would take to go from the ground level to the 3rd floor. Nines wasn’t sure how much more stimulation he could take anyway. Thankfully, it seemed Gavin was confident in his walking again, or at least his leaning-against-the-wall skills, as he had waved down Nines when he began to reach over to Gavin again. Nines was thankful to be free of the touch, finally being able to function beyond just walking.

“It’s just a few doors down, I can walk myself there,” Gavin said, exiting the elevator and standing in the doorway, turning to look at Nines.

He looked _rough._ The spots around his eyes were red, and a deep frown seemed to be carved into his face, an almost nauseating contrast to his permanent scowl, only because Nines had longed for anything but _that_ expression. One side of his face was marked red as well, from having his face pressed against the window, and random hairs were scattered all over his head, though his hair had retained its usual shape surprisingly well.

“Okay,” Nines stated flatly. He’d internally cursed his voice for being so good at being non-expressive — _too_ good at it.

Gavin turned to begin walking away and the elevator doors started to close as well. He couldn’t let it just end there though. 

Nines jumped forward and threw his hand between the elevator doors, forcing them to pull back.

“Wait!” he said, peering his head out through the doors to see Gavin, who had actually turned around to meet Nines’ eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

The two words felt like a drip from the river of thoughts raging in Nines’ head, though they were the only words that felt right, at least for now.

Gavin looked down, breaking their momentary eye contact. The drained expression on his face appeared just a little lighter, but forced.

“Me too.”

He turned back around, pressed against the wall, and slowly made his way down the dimly lit hall. Nines wanted to jump out and tell him what he was really feeling; wanted to fix things between the two of them and clear the air right then and there. He stood inside the elevator, watching the doors shut in front of him, mentally constructing thousands of outcomes and conversations that could be had if he stopped the doors. But he just couldn’t bring himself to move, and he didn’t.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy the last chapter of Gavin and Nines' first case together!

Gavin woke up with a start. He was damp with sweat, as he usually was whenever waking up, and the sun felt blinding, even through his dark curtains, but he was feeling better now. Somewhat.

A few days had passed since he’d last seen Nines, and if he could have it his way, he might _never_ see Nines again. Just even thinking about that day _mortified_ him — nobody had ever seen him like that, nobody except, now, some elite android he barely even knew. He couldn’t remember what exactly happened for the rest of that day, but of course he remembered with perfect clarity the moment Nines found him. Gavin definitely didn’t want to ever see him again when he thought about how he must’ve looked then; especially when thinking of what somehow accidentally came out of his mouth. It spilt through his lips as eagerly as the tears rolled down his face, but _damn_ was it easily the most embarrassing moment of his life.

He had, however, gotten a text from Nines the day after he made a complete fool of himself.

10:12AM: Don’t worry about your report and take the next week off to recover, I have it covered.

Gavin didn’t even want to begin to think of what Nines could mean by “I have it covered,” but he’d already given up by then, so he didn’t think about it much. All Gavin could do was drop his head into both his hands in shame, trying to rub the tired out of his eyes, and maybe, just maybe rub away all his memories of that day as well. Better yet, why not just rub away his existence. Yeah, that sounds nice.

The succulent fantasy of just ceasing to be was cut short by the impatient banging against Gavin’s apartment door. As tempting as outright ignoring the noise, and whoever was behind it, seemed, he hadn’t spoken with anyone in days and _needed_ to feel like he still existed, even if it was (most likely) some neighbor complaining about his loud music at night, _again_. Either way, duty calls; Gavin sluggishly threw his blankets off of himself and made his way to the door. 

He had to stand on the tip of his toes to look through the peephole of the front door; after years of sending request after request to get it replaced and brought to a _normal_ human height, there was no response, not even a reply. And he’d send yet another email right after he addressed whoever was knocking, if it weren’t _him_.

It was Nines. He only needed a glance at his cinnamon-brown hair and pale skin to know it was him through the small lens.

_Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck._

Gavin stumbled away from the door.

_What do I say? Why is he here? Do I just ignore him?_

He knocked again.

_Shit shit shit. Okay, okay just stay still. Maybe he’ll think you’re not here…_

_...wait no — the car. Dammit. He’s too smart for that. God, why’re you such an-_

“It’s Connor. I can hear your breathing, dumbass.”

Gavin’s hand shot over his mouth.

_So it wasn’t Nines...why is Connor here then?_

Connor had never been to Gavin’s apartment before, so whatever he was here for, it wasn’t anything good.

Gavin stepped forward, unlocking the door and swinging it open slowly with a creak. He hid his almost nude body behind the door, poking just his head through the small crack he’d opened.

“What the fuck are you here for?” he asked, too early to put in as much venom in his words as he usually would and wanted to.

“Nines found Cappelletti.”

Gavin had honestly forgotten who she was for a moment. He hadn’t thought about her, nor _anything_ about the case at all since _that_ day; it was the last thing on his list of priorities. But why was Connor telling him about this?

“Oh...good then.”

“It is good.”

“...where is he then?”

“Oh, your _partner_? He’s going after her as we speak.”

“What?!”

“I know where he’s headed. Are you coming or not?”

Nines was _not_ a rash person. It didn’t matter if Gavin knew him for years or for these few weeks, it was obvious just by looking at him. So what the _hell_ was he thinking?

Gavin swiped a hand over his face, getting rid of the last of his grogginess.

“Shit...yeah, of course. Give me a minute to get ready.”

“It’s 1 PM, Detective.”

With that, Gavin abruptly shut the door in Connor’s face.

_Fuckin’ androids…_

. . .

“For the last time, put out that cigarette before I pull this car over and put _you_ out on the side of the road.”

“...fine.”

Gavin, to no surprise, outright hated Connor’s car. His _convertible_. If it weren’t the cliche fuzzy dice, then it was how shiny the grey exterior was, or how soft the red, velvety interior was; maybe it was how he rolled the top down as they drove off, subjecting Gavin to the chilling late-winter wind. To be honest, he could go on forever about how much he hated everything about the car, especially how comfortable he felt sitting in it. It was a welcome distraction, as it took up all his conscious focus, while the rest of his brain felt like a hamster on a wheel as it tried to process and figure out why the _fuck_ Nines was pursuing Georgia alone. 

He didn’t want to believe that his dark thoughts were right. Gavin didn’t want to accept the fact that Nines saw him as dead weight — _couldn’t_ accept it. He was _sick_ of trying to be better and only letting people down, it was a situation he found himself in time and time again throughout all of his life. It became easier to just not care about anyone at all. Despite that, he tried to be Nines’ partner. _Wanted_ to prove to him, and himself that he was worth caring about and worthy of his job. But he failed. Again.

Gavin wanted to give up now more than ever before, but he had to save Nines first.

“So, let me get this straight. Georgia _didn’t_ kill her almost-husband?”

“When Nines chased after Georgia, he was paralyzed by an android woman who appeared to be Cappelletti’s lover.”

_Fuck._

He didn’t know Nines got hit with anything. He sat there quietly for a few seconds, thinking to himself. As much as his natural impulse was to feel even worse, he had a case to solve, and no time for both.

“You think the android got jealous and killed Costa?” Gavin asked.

“Yup.”

“It would make sense...but why would Georgia stay with her then? You’d think she’d be a little mad.”

“Unless she was in on it,” Connor flatly remarked.

“It would make sense...but I’m not sure. Judging from how she behaved when I interrogated her, it just didn’t seem like something she had in her. Sure, she bashed me across the head with a lamp, but she didn’t seem like a killer.”

“Are you sure you’re not just saying that because you found her attractive?” Connor said, his tone making it sound like less of a question, but more of a statement.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m sure.” 

Connor glanced a bit to his right, taking in the pleasure of Gavin’s annoyance, a soft grin grew on his face at the sight.

“She wasn’t even my type anyway,” Gavin said matter-of-factly, eliciting a disgusted scoff from Connor, killing his joy.

Gavin had never been alone with Connor like this, except for _that other_ really embarrassing day when he got knocked out by him in seconds flat. He didn’t like Connor, in fact everything about him frustrated Gavin...but this was nice. After the past few days he’d had, it was refreshing to return to some normalcy. Granted, it wasn’t exactly for a positive reason, but it felt good enough. He still wished the android would roll the top back on his car though, cause _damn_ was it cold for an afternoon.

“Hey, put the top back up, it’s freezing as shit.”

“No. Thanks for asking though!”

_Just how it should be._

. . .

“So...where the fuck are we?”

“We’re just by the Detroit River. Deviancy might break off any means of tracking androids, but it doesn’t mean I can’t look at Nines’ bank account purchases. I’ve never been more glad that he refuses to seek out his own private transportation.”

“You have access to his bank account _and_ tracked the specific purchases?”

“Just don’t let him find out,” Connor said with an innocent shrug, as he got out of his car.

Gavin followed his lead, getting out of the car too. It seemed they were in a lightly forested area by the river, far off from the more popularized, tourist attraction, part of the river closest to Canada. If anyone were trying to escape the U.S. from Michigan, this was definitely one of the easiest ways, in theory. In reality, however, ever since androids had started to gain rights in the U.S., especially with the revolution sparking in Detroit, the border patrol on Canada’s side around the river had strengthened significantly. Some androids still looked to escape the States, but both governments had anticipated that response, and worked out a deal to keep androids trapped on this side. They’d barely mentioned it on the news, leading to many escape plans, like Georgia and her lover’s, ending swiftly and silently. Gavin’s top priority was to stop Nines from doing anything reckless, as he was apparently capable of doing, but he’d also rather not let either of those women end up like that.

“Now what?” Gavin asked, walking over to Connor who’d been standing in front of the car, looking around.

“There are fresh tire tracks in the dirt just over there, it’s our best bet. Unless, of course, you have any better ideas.”

“You sure you can’t track like an android signal or anything? An IP address or some shit?”

“That’s...not a bad idea actually. Give me a moment.”

 _Hmph. How ‘bout that huh?_ Gavin thought to himself, rather than said aloud, making an effort, for once, to not cause unnecessary trouble. 

The two stood there quietly, Connor clearly trying to focus and Gavin being as _patient_ as possible. The sun started it’s slow descent into night, though there were several hours of daylight left to burn. A flock of geese flew overhead, and birds chirped here and there from the trees that rose above the two, bushes rustling at random from the animals that scurried on the woodland flooring at their feet. In most cases, Gavin would feel at ease from the scenery, but he was too anxious thinking about whatever was coming next. Nevertheless, he tried to take a moment of tranquility from the idyllic nature surrounding them, after all, it wasn’t often anybody living in Detroit saw places like this.

“I’ve been able to find only one android through local signaling, and judging from the strength, it’s almost definitely Nines.”

“Good thing he didn’t put himself on airplane mode, right?”

Connor just blinked at him and began to walk further into the woods, towards the tire-marked trail. Gavin followed closely behind him, leaning to the left and right in a childish attempt to see Connor’s reaction.

“What, not even a smirk? No acknowledgement of how funny that was?”

“No.”

“Tough crowd…” Gavin dejectedly sighed, slowing his pace to create more distance between him and Connor.

As they continued to trek through the woods, Gavin couldn’t help but watch Connor’s back, and found himself comparing Nines’ physique to Connor’s. Sure, they were practically the same model, but there were some slight differences...not that Gavin had ever looked at Nines without any purpose. If he’d met them both just out of deviancy, then he probably wouldn’t be able to tell them apart aside from their height or eye color. Connor had a much more relaxed demeanor and posture, whereas Nines was always standing as if he had books stacked on his head, he even sat exactly straight up as well. The dumb thought of it brought a slight smile to his face.

He just hoped that things between them could become...not as tense as they always seemed to be. It wasn’t that he liked Nines, nor did Gavin want to be his friend, no, of course not. However, it would _definitely_ be helpful to both of their jobs and lives if they were something _close_ to friendly. Plus, he _sort_ of owed the guy. 

Several minutes later, Connor turned to Gavin with a finger tightly pressed to his lips. He then pointed ahead, mouthing the word “Nines.” Gavin nodded quickly in reply, the two slowing their steps and crouching a bit.

“Miss Cappelletti, TW400, please... the raft.”

Gavin’s shit hearing was _really_ not paying off right now.

“...name is Annie!”

Gavin finally met up just behind Connor, who’d stopped moving. They were obscured from sight behind a tree, but just able to see Nines, the android, and Georgia if they leaned to the left. It seemed Nines had confronted the two women by an inflatable boat, their car was a bit off to the side as well, a Jeep.

Connor turned around to Gavin, and began to whisper, “I’m going back to the clearing where the car is to request backup, there’s no signal out here.” He started to rise up and slowly walk away, before turning around to Gavin once more, “And don’t you dare get him killed.”

Gavin gave him a wide grin and two thumbs up.

_Okay, just you, Nines, and two murderers? You got this._

He closed his eyes and tried his best to listen in on the on-going conversation.

“This is the last time I will ask you two to exit the raft. If you don’t get out now, the charges placed against you will be for more than just murdering your fiance, Aaron Costa.”

“For the _last_ time, it was an accident! I _loved_ Aaron, but I-I didn’t love him anymore like _that_. Not like I love Annie,” Georgia called out.

“You’re an android too, you have to know what it’s like for us. They’ll tear me apart! I don’t want to die, not like that! Haven't you cared for someone before? Don’t you know what that’s like?”

“No, I don’t know,” Nines said without any falter or hesitation.

“Annie — don’t!”

The android reached down and pulled a pistol out from below, and trained it on Nines, who pulled out his own pistol in one swift motion, firing a bullet into the inflated cushioning of the raft. It howled as the air poured out of it, bringing the boat, halfway in the water already, down to the earth.

“You son of a bitch!” Annie shouted, firing off two bullets in Nines’ direction.

Before Gavin could process what was happening, he jumped up at the sound of the bullets, but was thrown off balance and ended up doing what he did best. Gavin fell. He rolled down the small ledge he had been crouching on and became completely exposed to the three people before him on the dirt beach.

“Gavin?!” Nines yelled, running over to him, completely untouched by Annie’s bullets.

He’d finally stopped rolling against the dirt and rocks, his face being cut up just a little with scattered dirt markings.

“Fuck, ow.”

Nines leaned down to him, back to Annie and Georgia, hand rushing to Gavin’s face. Gavin moved away from the touch, jolting up, to look for the two women, to find them both running to their car a few meters from the boat.

“Nines! — Nines, they’re getting away!” Gavin shouted.

He whipped around to see them both entering the white Jeep, Annie’s back exposed as she swung the door open.

Gavin could see it in Nines’ eyes, as the android reached for his pistol. His eyes hadn’t even moved at all, his focus deadset on Annie. He took a long, patient breath. And then Nines fired. One shot in her right foot. Then another, after Annie had nearly fallen over from the first shot. Her left foot. Blue blood splattered against the white metal of the car.

She cried out, grasping onto the car door, and Nines took another deep breath in, this time led by his nose. A smile grew on his face as he exhaled through his mouth, exposing what looked like... _fangs?_ — right where his canine teeth were supposed to be. He readied his aim once more at Annie, who was struggling to pull herself into the driver’s seat with just her arms.

Gavin felt like he was losing his mind, everything started happening so quickly, but the bullets fired so slowly, with such calmness. Nines fired another bullet clean through her hands that were so tightly gripped to the car door, causing Annie to drop to the ground with a spray of cerulean. She screamed this time.

Gavin couldn’t process any of it at the moment. It just felt _wrong_ to him. That wasn’t Nines. He’d _never_ do something so cruel. Whatever was going on within the android, he had to stop him. 

He pushed himself onto Nines, the next bullet shooting off into the air. This one wasn’t aimed at Annie however. It fired centimeters from Gavin’s ear, a reaction almost _automatic_ to when Gavin began to push Nines, the moment contact was made. Gavin leaned over to look into the android’s eyes, his own ears ringing from the gunfire. Nines’ body was pressed flat against the dirt with Gavin over him. It really _was_ him. Those icy gray eyes were near impossible to forget. But his expression had already changed from the unsettling, sadistic grin. He looked panicked.

They’d wasted enough time to let Annie throw herself into the back seat instead; her pained cries filled the air as she fought to enter the car despite her horribly damaged hands and feet. They sped off with Georgia driving into a different direction than the tire tracks had led them, getting away yet again. But that didn’t matter right now.

Right now it was just the two of them — and after what he’d just seen, and what _nearly_ happened, the thought made Gavin feel unsafe to be with him; _scared_ even.

“What the fuck was that?!”

“They were getting away I-I had to stop them.”

“You could’ve shot the tires, could’ve shot at the car, but yo-you smiled? And then you fired-”

“I-I don’t know, Gavin. I didn’t- The mission.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you? What about the missions makes you shoot at me too?!”

It didn’t make any sense. The _same_ android that had shown more humanity to Gavin than nearly any _human_ had for, quite possibly his entire life. The _same_ android that sat by him and didn’t judge him when he was at his most vulnerable. The _same_ android that had tried to just kill him, after practically torturing one of his own .

“ _Nines-”_

“I don- I don’t know, that wasn’t m-me,” a tear strayed out of the androids' left eye and ran down the side of his face and dripped onto the dirt below them. His words came out of his mouth through shaky, short breaths. 

Gavin had never seen an android cry before, not in a way that felt so real.

“I d-don’t know what’s wrong with me, Gavin, I’m s-sorry, I’m so sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeouch... Connor has a lot to come back to
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!  
> Kudos and comments are super appreciated, as is any criticism or general feedback!  
> I'm not sure when I'll pick up their story, but expect some stuff this month most likely.  
> I'm looking to do a bunch of one offs (within the series) that eventually (yes, eventually) lead to a long-needed romance for the two.  
> Not even I'm sure how they'll mend their relationship after this..so look forward to how I figure that out!
> 
> Thank you again <3


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